DynamicVu Inspiration

March 29, 2019

Hello, let me introduce myself: my name is Warren Farr, for over 20 years I ran a mid-sized wholesale business employing around 120 people. Prior to that, I was a software geek writing neanderthal code typical of the 1980’s. Somewhere around the year 2000 when everyone was finished panicking about Y2K, I began solving particularly “wicked” problems using computer simulation models.

Of course there are many excellent problem solving tools available. Most of these tools have significant advantages over the involved process of understanding a situation well enough to create a useful simulation model. However, my years as a business owner taught me that some problematic situations require more. This is especially the case when a problem involves many people and processes, and when it manifests itself over a long period of time. These problems do not yield to single-lever solutions because they are supported by closely held beliefs and rooted between what is easily visible.

I do love a “wicked” problem!

After a few years of building computer simulation models, I realized that the most important step is asking the right people how things really work, in detail. Listening to experts generates TONS of information. I think of like going on an archeological dig to find and catalog thousands of physical artifacts. In my case, I am “digging” for knowledge artifacts that will inform the structure and parameterization of a really great simulation model.

After years of saving, losing, and then finding just the right knowledge artifacts, I decided that there had to be a better way. The Dropbox file folder system was just too one-dimensional. (I wanted something more like Quicken where my checkbook is organized by date, payee, category, amount, etc.) Indeed, all businesses have carefully designed databases to store their most important information (inventory, customers, sales records). Why couldn’t I have such a database to organize the “knowledge artifacts”?